I used to read the reviews on Amazon, but with the influx of “honest and unbiased” reviewers who received the book for free it’s hard to figure out which books will actually get you a 5 on the exam and which reviews are shills.

Also, one thing that you might not have known is that the AP exams change from time to time, so if your oldest kid bought an AP prep book a couple years ago, it might be out of date when your youngest has to use it.

I didn’t know about this until I visited the AP Books website, and I was a bit embarrassed because I kept telling my youngest that he can just use the old books.

I guess I’ll have to buy him newer ones when the time comes, but it’ll be worth it because my oldest is going to college with a ridiculous number of credits.

He could graduate in three years or less thanks to the AP exams he did, but if you’re thinking about having your kid do the same- be careful! Not all colleges give credit for AP scores and for some colleges the credit is simply “elective” credit which means that it’s nearly pointless.

Also, make sure to tell your kid to take the class not just for AP credit and grades, but for the knowledge.

There’s no point in having him get a 5 on the Calculus BC exam just to forget all of it before college starts and have to retake the Calculus 1 math courses there.